Grant Flower Speaks Up For Andy

[Donny]

Wisden CricInfo staff - 8 May 2003

Grant Flower has spoken out in support of his brother, Andy Flower. Andy, along with Henry Olonga, had worn black armbands during Zimbabwe's opening game against Namibia, and castigated Robert Mugabe's regime, saying that it had brought about the "death of democracy". Grant Flower said that he shared his brother's sentiments, and the only reason that he did not join the protest was that he thought it would lessen the impact.

"I agreed with what they did," he said. "To be honest I wanted to join them. But I thought it would be a better and a bigger statement if it was just the two of them, one white person and one black person."

Grant admitted that it was odd no longer having Andy in the team, but he asserted that things weren't quite so awful. "It's different but I wouldn't say I feel isolated," he said. "Zimbabwe is still a great place to live in even though we're having tough times."

Were the relations between the brothers affected as a fall-out of Andy's protest? Grant said they hadn't. "We get on very well. We are very competitive but we helped with each other's games."

Zimbabwe was affected by Andy Flower's withdrawal, though. Grant said: "We probably over-relied on him. We'd always thought he'd do it. Now it's up to the other guys to step up to the plate."

Andy's absence has ensured that Zimbabwe's chances in the forthcoming series against England have already been written off. Grant thinks that's not altogether a bad thing.

"If everyone is expecting you to be thrashed," he said, "everything else is a bonus."